The Russian spies were around 70 years ago! Around 1950/52 the Norton Featherbed was winning the World Motorcycling Championship. It was designed by the brilliant self-taught Ulster engineer Rex McCandless, whose next venture was the Mule, a lightweight all-terrain vehicle for the armed forces. It had four-wheel drive, a Triumph 650cc engine at the rear, and could carry four soldiers and their equipment. If it was stuck, three men could easily pick it up.
In 1988 I took this picture of my old pal Rex with his Mule, both long retired. We fired it up so I could try it along the rocky coastline of Co. Down and it was indeed unstoppable, though I frightened the wits out of myself while trying it. Rex’s interest was in design rather than production and while the Mule was successfully tested for the Army nothing came of it. He regretted that the Mule would have been ideal for the Falklands war, where the boggy, rocky terrain resembled that of the Mourne Mountains where the vehicle had been developed.
The Mule is now in the Ulster Transport Museum but I remembered it straight away on seeing this clip of the latest Russian vehicles with basic bodywork and central steering position:
Rex’s next venture was a series of autogyros, but that’s another story.